Reflection

The last of three parts: The Power of Reflection

With all the contemplating and questioning comes the art of reflection. I call it an art because I think it’s a beautiful and creative process. Reflection, however, is really a skill. It’s something that can be learned. Most importantly, something that has to learn how to climb its way up the leader’s priority ladder, up anybody’s priority ladder, regardless of position, field of expertise, level of influence or whatever other distinguishing factor.

Reflection is often thought of as something luxurious and something passive. Something you do if you really don’t know what else to do. Maybe I’m exaggerating slightly, but to make it clear: reflection is not for softies nor does it reflect inertia. And it certainly isn’t a waste of time. Reflection is actually an active process: it is thinking, pondering, considering, re-organizing and thereby often creating something new or realizing what is, why it is, and how great (or not) things are.

Back to the everyday reality of most managers and leaders, though. Often, you are too busy running from meeting to meeting, talking with stakeholders, implementing the business strategy, and keeping all other balls in the air. It is highly likely that you ‘find no time’ to reflect. For reflection to seriously take its place on your priority list, you must recognize the need and the power of reflection. As was described in parts 1 and 2, asking yourself questions, and asking the right questions, is crucial for learning, rejuvenating, creating, staying on the right track, changing tracks, and moving towards growth and change. Reflection is one of your key tools to accomplish just that.

Respectfully appreciating your busy reality, I advise you to make reflection a habit. Some people like to reflect during a staring contest with their backyard, others while walking the dog, still others while taking a brief break between meetings. Or you might prefer to reflect while taking a shower, while reading a book and relating it to your own leadership and business, or while driving back home from work, or while just sitting in your comfy chair without doing anything else. The “where” of your reflection isn’t exactly important. What matters is that you take time to step back, get into that helicopter, and look at your own thinking and acting, the results you are creating, and, most importantly, your underlying values and the purpose that it should be serving.

Stepping away from the problem and from your crazy daily schedule to reflect helps you to purposefully evaluate your leadership being and your being in general. It often frees creativity that lay buried deep under the many meetings, projects, deadlines, and appointments that may swamp your daily schedule. Stepping back from daily habits and routines helps you question the ‘why’ of these very habits and routines. Are they still useful, purposeful, the best possible choice? Reflection provides more perspectives and thereby more options and choices, which is what strategic leadership is all about.

Reflection can result in reconsidering fundamental assumptions on which your way of doing business or your leadership is based. It’s like asking the “why” question as Kenichi Ohmae suggested. Asking the why question over and over again, until you get to the bottom of the issue, value, or concern. Another advantage, if you needed one more: reflection helps you to see yourself more clearly and enables you to laugh about yourself – which many of us do too little of – and to see the bigger picture, sometimes even seeing a significantly different picture from before.

In short: reflection – an underused tool for leaders (and other humans). A powerful tool, for everyone.  

Ubuntu

Drawn from the book

“Ubuntu” – An inspiring story about an African tradition of teamwork and collaboration”

by Stephen Lundin and Bob Nelson, 2010

In Africa there is a concept known as Ubuntu – the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievements of others. So Ubuntu is very low on Ego stuff which is often so dominantly present in our private and work environments.

The focus of most people’s attention is often on our differences, despite the fact that it doesn’t really matter who you are, what you look like and where you live, and despite the fact that we have similar values and essentially the same genes. Still, we often focus on our differences – Arab and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Christian, liberal and conservative, the color of our skin, and many more possible differences.

This is different if you live and work according to the ‘spirit’ of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu means –

I am because we are.

Ubuntu means –

A way of life, a way of being.

Ubuntu means –

We’re all in this together.

Ubuntu means –

Being busy is no excuse for avoiding the things that matter most.

Ubuntu means –

A philosophy that considers the success of the group above that of the individual.

Ubuntu means –

If you allow differences to define a relationship, you will always be at odds with others.

Ubuntu means –

Asking: “What do we have in common?”, and “How can we best work together?”.

Ubuntu means –
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments, there are just consequences.

What can Ubuntu bring you and your organization?

Leadership Conversation with Ronald Blom

Interview with Ronald Blom

Former top exec of a leading utility company in the Netherlands

This interview is part of my “Leadership Conversations” with leaders in the U.S. and abroad. They are conversations with leaders in different areas such as education, the service sector, manufacturing, politics, the agricultural business and charity organizations. I speak with sales directors, CIOs, HR executives and leaders in general management.

These conversations inspire me and I hear they inspire the participating leaders through enhanced awareness of their beliefs, values, vision, and their leadership–in–action.

Some of the topics covered in these Leadership Conversations were put to Ronald Blom.

Which values form the foundation of your leadership?

1.    Honesty, reliability, and self-reflection but also critical thinking towards what’s coming your way – in other words: independent thinking.

2.    Consistency in thinking and acting. Sticking to the determined route no matter how difficult and at the same time being receptive to arguments.

3.    Create and ensure an environment (i.e. people) that keeps both your feet on the ground.  

When is it difficult for you to act upon these values?

When I’m under pressure as is the case when I’m facing conflicting interests. Or whenever difficult choices are warranted. Whenever you get involved in a specific situation which leaves you less independent. It is also difficult when praise and admiration are too abundant so that you start believing you are God.

What or who inspires you in your role as a leader?

No famous examples. I partly draw my inspiration from my Jewish background: I’m still around, so I’m obliged to make the best of it and to use my talents.

What also inspires me is being able to add value for the ones who need it.

What trends and developments do you foresee in the area of leadership?

Less focus on the Chairman type leader, less focus on one leader being in charge of it all and more focus on team work and team leadership. Also, the importance of engaging and inspiring an organization as opposed to the untouchable leader who thinks he’s larger than life.

What requires more attention in your leadership thinking and acting?

Developing a thicker skin.

What’s your biggest fear as a leader?

Leading your business into decline or destruction, so fear of failure. Fearing that I will make the absolute wrong decisions and being held accountable by share holders, customers, and employees.

What do you need to remain motivated as a leader?

A combination of success and challenges.

What do you like best about your role as a leader?

Acknowledgment for the fact that I’m a good leader and realizing objectives.

Reflection – part 2 of 3: The “Why” Question

Following my earlier post (part 1of 3 on reflection: "Ask Yourself"), this post adresses the questions we ask ourselves.  

“How should we implement the new strategy?”

“What should we do to survive in this economy?”‘

“What is the best approach to leadership these days?”

“What is it that distinguishes us from our major competitors?”

“How do we get our workforce to embrace the upcoming changes?”

“What should be done to reduce overtime and cut costs?”

All valid and significant questions, but I believe their significance diminishes drastically without asking yourself the question of all questions: WHY?

“Why are we in this business at all?”

“Why do we do the things the way we do them?”

“Why is it that we want to operate worldwide?”

“Why do we think customer satisfaction is of major importance?”

Or even more fundamentally: “Why are we in business? Why do I exist? What’s my purpose in business and in life?”

Are we escaping from freedom, as philosopher Eric Fromm would say, by not asking the “why” question? Which starts with the ‘why’ question turned inward since we cannot operate effectively without self-questioning.

The notion and importance of the “Why” question is, of course, not new at the scene let alone that I would want to claim ownership of the concept. For many centuries philosophers of all breeds have asked themselves the “Why” question. In more recent history, Viktor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist and concentration camp survivor, focused on the “why” of things and on purpose in life. So does Richard Leider, coach, speaker, and author, who emphasizes the importance, joy, and fulfillment of purposeful living. The well known strategist Kenichi Ohmae states in his classic “The Mind of the Strategist” that companies have to challenge the business and the strategic thinking by confronting what’s taken for granted in an industry or business by asking the simple question “why”. Instead of accepting the first answer he promotes to keep asking “why” until there is nowhere to go with your “why”. So does author and consultant Peter Block, who writes that there are more important questions than ‘what’ or ‘how’. He reminds us that getting the question right may be the single most important thing we can do in life and in business.

Even though the notion of the importance and impact of the “why” question is not new, pondering the very question and acting upon it is still foreign to many people, leaders and non-leaders alike. Do you know what drives you? Do you know why you get up every morning other than to silence your alarm clock? Do you take time for the many “why’s” in your life? Only if you take time to contemplate and to reflect are you really in charge of your own life and are you really your own screen writer, editor, and stage manager.

“Questions are too big and take too long
only if you expect a final resolution”.

From Peter Block’s book “The Answer to How is Yes”

Peaceful, powerful perseverance and courage-in-action

Finally – he stepped down! What a remarkable demonstration of peaceful persistence and of courage by the Egyptian people. Talking about bringing about change! Timing, persistence, courage, passion, the power of numbers, and authenticity seem some of the key factors in this revolution and in its result.

Weeks of historic importance accumulating in the long-anticipated resignation of Mubarak, turning “The Square of Freedom” and the rest of Egypt and the world into places of intense celebration and a sense of justification and accomplishment.

Despite my optimistic nature I wonder and worry about what’s to come. Euphoria, happiness, initial excitement, and hope are too often followed by despair and disillusionment, partly due to inexperience, chaos, worrisome power shifts, and optimism with too little realism leading to unrealistic expectations. How I wish for the Egyptian people to prove me wrong in my worries.

From the little I know and am capable imagining, the challenges of rethinking, redesigning, and rebuilding must be daunting. New oppression with a different face could be lurking already. So many people, sometimes complete generations, have struggled and suffered after dictators and oppressive systems were overthrown, like in former Eastern Germany to mention just one example. In some place these challenges were overcome, in others people woke up to yet another oppressive system with just a different name.

From a systems perspective: so much unknown yet about the consequences of Mubarak’s resignation for the wider region and the whole world. If one part in a system changes, the whole system changes. If only there were guarantees.

This is clearly not my field of expertise, I can only share my thoughts and feelings. I have no answers, just questions and, above all, worries. And most of all: I hope for a healthy, democratic, prospering Egypt by and for the people.  So for now, I enjoy the pictures and sounds of celebration, with deep respect for the demonstrators and the Egyptian army – a force that will have to show its true colors in the coming days and weeks. Hopefully the colors will remain the same.

Reflection – part 1 of 3: “Ask Yourself”

We text, we tweet, we e-mail. We follow, we re-connect, we e-read. We mobilize electronically, we web-search, we share world-wide. This used to be: we make a phone call, we write a letter, we drive to meet with someone. We stand on a soap crate to mobilize for our cause. We browse dusty library shelves to find that one great book. How things change. How the way we seek and use information changes. How we relate to and connect with others changes.

These changes are great because they serve accessibility, convenience, efficiency, and speed. It breaks down boarders, distances, and some of the confinements and restrictions imposed by some political systems. It’s a greener way of doing things and it’s anonymous, if you want it to be. It improves accessibility for people with limitations and it has an enormous range. Everything seems available, always, and marketeers have convinced almost everybody that we even have an inherent right to have everything we want without waiting for it. Isn’t that great?

Yes, in certain ways it is. And it might also be a curse. Because I wonder what all this does to our attention, to our awareness, to our patience, to our appreciation, to our social skills, to our values, and to the way we perceive ourselves, others, and the world. I don’t have all the answers (do we ever?) but I wonder and I invite you to wonder with me.

In restaurants I see couples texting happily while dinner is being served. In shops, I see moms and dads and, of course, their children texting  and tweeting while standing in line or just standing in another shopper’s way. I see my son playing on his I-touch before breakfast – you never know, she might not notice this once. I hear of people getting out of their bed after turning of the light to check their I-phone after that all too familiar beep. I hear people talk about their best friends,that they've never met in person. I see myself being distracted while researching a topic for my blog – so many sites, articles, referrals let alone the e-mails, tweets, and texts that keep buzzing by.

To be clear, this is not a lecture opposing modern technology of which I am a happy user myself. I love my kindle, my cell, my I-touch, my laptop as I do the sites, blogs, and tweets. Or most of them and most of the time. I am all about growth, change, creations, experiments, and progress. And of coures focus, choice, and discipline are part of the equation.

I am merely inviting you to wonder with me. I’m inviting you to ask yourself some questions that too often go unasked:

1.    How present am I when I am in a conversation with someone? Am I really there, in the here-and-now, with body and mind, listening to the spoken and unspoken words and intentions? Am I free of distractions to be fully aware of what is going on inside me, inside the other person, and between us?

2.    Am I really that much more efficient/happy/enriched doing so many things at the same time and switching from one activity to another, fragmenting rather than focusing. Many studies suggest that multi-tasking and flying from one activity to another and back again has negative effects on precision, speed, quality, and safety - in the case of operating cars and other machines.

3.    Do I take time to learn backwards and dream forwards? Do I take time to relax while staring out the window, while enjoying a beautiful piece of Frank Lloyd Webber, while walking in the woods, or while just mesmerizing on my deck with a glass of Gruner Veltliner in the absence of modern distractions?

4.    Do I still know and live the values that form the foundation of my parenting, my leadership, my life? Did they change along the way and is any of that to be contributed to my use of technological advances (because I certainly don’t blame technology itself)? Am I still breathing and modeling my values and following my purpose?

Enough food for psychologists to research for many years to come. Enough questions for you to contemplate and munch on and try and find answers to. Or even better: to follow up with more questions, especially the “Why” question.

From life: Who's in charge?

The calendar shows May 2007. We tell our three children – then 10, 10, and 7 years old – that we are likely moving back to Minnesota for dad’s work. It’s the country where our twin girls were born but of which they have very few memories. Our children have grown up knowing that we might move again for dad’s work. They have often asked us questions like: “Will I wake up in this house and in this room when I turn 6?” So the shock is not as big as might have been the case in some other households. 

We always strive to practice transparency with our children, discussing topics generally thought of as too difficult for kids like addictions, divorce, integrity and the like. This shows in their responses to our announcement of the future move. In their initial reactions we are told that the rabbits will move with us and we are asked whether 1 and 1 is also two in the U.S. Many more questions and concerns flood their wonderful brains and hearts and reach us that same evening. We celebrate the news and everything to come with a dinner at one of their favorite restaurants: a Japanese Hibachi grill. The amount of energy and excitement running through our children’s bodies beats most descriptions. With high pitched questions, excited fantasies, and wonderful ideas about life in Minnesota in abundance, we watch our resilient and positive children with a mixture of pride and amazement. We also realize that they cannot anywhere near realistically comprehend the impact of this move yet. Maybe better so.

The best question of the day is saved for last. Our eldest daughter - by three minutes - solemnly calls me and announces a very important question: “Mom, we were just wondering. Is this a decision that we can say “no” to if we wanted to?” That hits home. Our children are accustomed  to having a vote whenever possible. This is not one of those situations, of course. My reply to JoAnn is: “Honey, this is a great question, and you know how I love questions. I feel a little sad to have to say that this time you guys do not have a vote in the decision”. I want to elaborate on my response but JoAnn and her siblings seem satisfied with my answer: They just need to know if and where they could possibly influence and control the situation. So JoAnn counters with “Okay, I already thought so, but we were just wondering”.

And don’t we all (or at least shouldn’t we all) wonder where and how we can influence our own lives, the lives of others, the quality of life on this planet, the quality of the workplace, and of our relationships. Of course it’s not always this easy or innocent (and it wasn’t, from our children’s perspective).

Influence and control can be either good or bad, depending on how and where it is exerted. But the need for it, the need for clarity, for decision-making power, and the need for impact lies within all of us. With you, your friends, your colleagues, your employees.

So how about you?

1.    Are you the stage-manager of your own life or does it ‘drive by and just happen to you’?

2.    Do you know what values and purpose guide your choices as a leader, as a person?

3.    Are you aware of the beliefs that guide your thinking and your actions?

4.    Do you control your impulses or do your impulses control you?

5.    Do you provide others with the trust and the means to take decisions and to exert control, i.e. be influential?

Some Tao Wisdom

Those who know they do not know

Gain wisdom.

Those who pretend they know

Remain ignorant.

Those who acknowledge their weakness

Become strong.

Those who flaunt their power

Will lose it.

Wisdom and power

Follow truth above all.

For truth is the way of Tao.

Tao 71

On being a leader

Leaders lead others by leading themselves first.

Leadership requires faith more than fact, will more than skill.

Leaders are led by values, by purpose, by a strong desire to continuously learn.

Leaders influence rather than impress, contribute rather than just accomplish.

Leaders work to have an impact, not to leave an impression.

Leaders inspire, initiate, and of course, they influence.

Leaders possess courage, conviction, humility, and passion.

Leaders are curious like scientists, inquisitive like philosophers.

Leaders can choose to be followers: willing to listen and take advice.

Leadership is a relationship. Leadership is personal.

The purpose of leaders is to mobilize others to serve a purpose.

Leaders understand that conquering others is power, conquering the self is strength.

What matters is how you matter.

“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts”

Henry David Thoreau – American writer and philosopher

The land of opportunity

The land of opportunity is

More than a place

It’s a state of mind

The land of opportunity is an attitude

It is an openness to new ideas

A willingness to listen

An eagerness to learn

A desire to know

And the flexibility to change

The land of opportunity

Is a new way of dealing with one another

It becomes a reality

When we stop judging each other

By superficial criteria

And begin to see

And appreciate

Everyone

As uniquely

Talented

Capable

And valuable

The land of opportunity

Is where we live and work

When we choose

To see with new eyes

Live from our hearts

And allow ourselves

And others

To be what we truly are: Ourselves

From: “A peacock in the Land of Penguins” by: Hateley and Smith

Book Review

“The answer to How is Yes – acting on what matters”, by Peter Block (2002).

Block states that in this culture we have too easily yielded to what is doable, practical, and popular thereby sacrificing the pursuit of what is in our hearts. What works (our love of practicality and our attraction to what is concrete and measurable) seems to come before what matters i.e. our capacity to dream, to be idealistic, and to give our lives to those things which are vague, hard to measure, and invisible but that matter. Block asserts that as long as we wish for safety, we will have difficulty pursuing what matters.

The author fervently campaigns against How? questions, which he calls an expression of our wish for control and predictability by finding the right way of doing things. It keeps us away from the question of “Does it matter to us what we are doing?” or the why question. Choosing to act on “what matters” is, according to Block, the choice to live a passionate existence, which is anything but controlled and predictable. It’s the path of risk and adventure. Block labels “getting the question right” as possibly the single most important thing we can do in life, business, and family. What follows is many examples of the wrong questions, the wrong focus, the wrong needs that many of us try and satisfy. It’s a different approach to an increasingly popular theme: values, meaning, and acting on what matters. Many examples, many moments to feel confronted with your own focus and meaning (or lack thereof), including the often present repetition that also characterizes this book. Block appears well read and creative, using Carl Jung’s concept of archetypes and the connection with what drives our behavior in his own way. He argues for philosophy rather than psychology, imagination rather than engineering, exploration rather than installation. I conclude this review with the quote: “What will matter most to us is the quality of experience we create in the world, not the quantity of results”. Not every executive will fully agree, but the point is clear I’m sure.  

Final note: the “Why” question is of course borrowed from many great philosophers and from Kenichi Ohmae in his “The Mind of the Strategist – The Art of Japanese Business”.